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FELINE
INFECTIOUS PERITONITIS
Infectious
feline Peritonitis is an illness produced by an RNA virus
from the Coronaviridae family. There are two feline
coronaviruses in existence: one of them develops into a
fatal disease and the other only into minor enteritis. It
is a very contagious virus and mainly infects the faeces
of the affected cats. It can be contracted throught direct
contact with the faeces, through the sharing of a cat
litter tray, or indirectlyon the clothing or footwear, etc
of people who have had contact with infected cats. The
latter however is a remote possibility.
Intimate contact between cats can also be infectious.
The
virus is excreted occasionally ib the saliva and very
rarely it can cross the placenta. It can survive only
hours or a few days in the atmosphere althrough it can
last for weeks in the cat litter tray. The virus generally
enters the organism orally or sometimes through
inhalation. A week will pass between
penetration and the appearance of the first signs of the
virus distributing itself through the differents organs.
The illness has a variable incubation period but it is
generally one to two weeks, althrough in some cases it
could last for several month or even years. There are two
presentations: the effusive or damp form, or the non
effusive or dry form.
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Effusive
Infectious Feline peritonitis: This is the
acute presentation of the illness. The pririncipal
characteristic is the accumulation of liquid in the
peritoneum and/or pleural cavities producing abdominal
distension or difficulty breathing, respectively.
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Non-effusive
Infectious Feline Peritonitis: This is a
slower development process, wich affects differents
organs producing inflammatory reactions. The central
nervous system may be affected, paralysis of the hind
quarters ( the most frequent neurological sign) is
associated with fundamental lesions while the central
lesions (meningitis and hydrocephalus are consequences
of the action of the virus) can provoke dementia,
nervous tick, personality changes and
convulsions.
It must be remembered that
Infectious Feline Peritonitis is the most frequent
cause of neurological problems in felines and
according
to our experience it leads to the most unfavourable
cases of evolution and responds poorly to
treatment.
Ocular lesions are common and they
affect the iris exhibiting a range of symptoms
(pus and blood in the eye chamber, etc)
This is an illness
with a fatality rate of 95 percent and therefore the
traetment is palliative ( we can only minimise the
symptoms) with an aim to improve the quality of life
of the animal.
To
avoid the ingestion or dissemination of the FCov virus
in catteries the recommendations
are:
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Avoid stress caused by
overcrowding.
-
Limit the movement of the
animal.
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Isolate cats wich are brought to or returned to the
breeder.
-
Maintain a healthy genetic
programme.
-
Control of feline AIDS and feline
Leukaemia.
-
Regular use of
desinfectants.
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Reduce the levels of faeces contamination into the
atmosphere.
-
Keep cats is small, stable groups of three or
four.
-
Carry out regular blood serum tests in resident cats
before introducing or mating new cats; do not
introduce HIV positive cats into breeding
grounds.
-
Through the tests wich detect the RNA virus the
healthy carriers wich are excreting the virus without
developing the illness can be detected more accurately
and therefore they can be isolated or prevented from
entering the breeding
ground.
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If it is necessary to introduce new cats with
endemic infections into a cattery then they must be
vaccinated with primucell before they are
admitted.
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If an animal dies at home of Infectious Feline
Peritonitis you must wait one month before bringing
another animal into home.
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Vaccination:
The
existing vaccination is Primucell applied nassally.
Vaccination
with Primucell will cause an increase of the antibodies
against thsi virus and therefore it is advisable to do a
blood test prior to teh vaccination since it is not
effective if the animal is already incubating the illness.
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